4/28/09 - Mike O'Connor, our longtime HBS e-news/newsletter editor, has stepped down after several years of good and much appreciated service. We thank him! Bryan Proksch has been appointed as the new HBS E-news/newsletter editor in his place. Bryan, a musicologist by trade, is assistant professor of music at McNeese State University. His work in brass history includes several editions with Editions BIM (Cerclier, Snow and others), articles in the ITG Journal (on Snow and Kennan), and an article on Dauverne and Kresser in the next issue of the HBS Journal. He also edits the "repertoire column" for the Trumpet Guild. Those wishing to submit news items for the HBS website can email him directly or continue to submit to Jeff via email.

HBS CIMCIM Session
The Historic Brass Society will present a day-long session on Friday September 11, 2009 in Rome at the CIMCIM week-long conference. The HBS session is headed and organized by Sabine Klaus and will involve two parts:

First Part: Innovation and new technologies in the study, cataloguing and display of brass musical instruments

• Louise Bacon
• Eugenia Mitroulia
• Arnold Myers
• Gregor Widholm

Second Part: Free topics

• Stewart Carter
• Herbert Heyde
• Bruno Kampmann
• Renato Meucci

The HBS session will be held in the Parco della Musica Auditorium of the Musical Instrument Museum of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Details of the session will be posted at a later date. The full CIMCIM (International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections) conference will be held in Florence and Rome from September 7-11, 2009. There will also be pre-conference activities in Milan on September 5-6 and post conference activities in Naples on September 13-14. The conference will deal with all aspects of musical instruments including history, organology, and iconography. The home page of the 2009 meeting with the preliminary program is now online here
Further Details - Nov. 2008

5/27 - Inexpensive rooms are still available at the Hotel Colorado in Florence and the Hotel Santa Prassede in Rome.

5/25 - Those who heard Paul Niemisto's talk about the rather mysterious instrument designs of the maker J.F. Anderst will be interested to know of a special exhibition of his brass instruments at the Kuopio Cultural History Museum in Finland. Accompanying the largest known collection of these instruments is a special exhibiton booklet with a detailed article by Niemisto. Information: www.kuopionmuseo.fi

6/15 - The National Centre for Research in the Performing Arts at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama is hosting the first Trumpet Forum on 14th July 2009. Experts from all over the UK will gather in Glasgow for this specialist conference on the trumpet, its music and its history.

Professor John Wallace, Principal of the Academy and internationally renowned trumpeter, will introduce the conference and Professor Trevor Herbert, of The Open University, will be the keynote speaker. Special guest John Webb will be bringing 19th century instruments from his personal collection, which will be heard in performance.

Delegates to the Forum will explore the many dimensions of the trumpet including historical aspects, organological considerations, contemporary performance practices and the collaborative links the instrument has had, and continues to have, with composers.

Click here for more information.

6/17 - On June 7, 2009 Fred Benkovic died following problems lingering from a fall some three months earlier.  He was 85 years old.

Fred began collecting band instruments while he was serving in the Army during WWII.  At that time there were few others interested in these historical artifacts.  Although his primary focus was always band instruments of the Civil War era, his collecting interests stretched from early primitive brass through instruments of WWI.  Also, centering on the mid-nineteenth century, he gathered together uniforms and accouterments, images, bugles, fifes and weapons.  His place in the collection, restoration and manufacture of reproduction rope tension drums is perhaps best described by George Carroll in his most recent book: “Fred is a master craftsman; the first to restore and to manufacture copies of period drums accurately”.  And, he was a diligent researcher early on, assembling lists of manufacturers, documenting the history of individual instruments and searching out period band music.

Fred assembled perhaps the most significant private collection of these historic instruments.  All publications listing 19th century instruments include examples from the Benkovic Collection.  I suspect that every band that portrays the 19th century is using instruments that were, at one time, a part of the Benkovic collection.
 
Fred was an artist.  His professional career was as a graphic artist for Pabst Brewing in Milwaukee.  Fred's professional skills as an artist / illustrator enabled him to restore and replicate the identifying decorations on many historic drums.  His artistic sensibilities and his attention to construction details enabled him to replicate missing elements of historic wind and percussion instruments.  His artistic talent is on display in all of the print material he generated for the 1st Brigade Band including LP recording jackets.

Fred’s national and international presence as a collector was balanced by his impact on music in Milwaukee and the mid-West.  He was an extraordinary man who made significant contributions to a variety of musical organizations, especially those with a connection to U. S. history.  In 1963 Fred gathered some of his instruments, some music from the Civil War era and some local musicians and began to perform.  In 1964 he was invited to assemble a band to participate in a centennial re-enactment of Grant's return to Galena.  That performance led to the foundation of the 1st Brigade Band and Heritage Military Music Foundation.  Not content with one band in one historical period, Fred participated in the organization of the 4th Continental Band Of Music, a Revolutionary War era portrayal.  Fred took leave from the 1st Brigade Band in the mid 1970s.  He then formed a WWI dough boy band that presented concerts and participated in parades.  Finally Fred organized, and participated in, the Command Performance Band, a portrayal of a WWII dance band, in which he played trombone and which continues as an active musical organization.

Fred was an active musician participating in Milwaukee civic musical organizations and, until recently, was an active bugler at military burials.

Finally, as many collectors and living historian across this country will attest, Fred was a mentor and friend, always ready with information and advice.

-- Dan Woolpert 

6/15 - IGEB announces for 2010 the 5th Thelen-Prize for dissertations in the field of wind music research. All interested people with dissertations accepted since 2007 are allowed to participate. Deadline October 23, 2009.

Participation is open to all dissertations in the field of wind music research, in every language, from every country, worldwide. The winner presents a paper at the IGEB conference 2010 in Oberschützen, Austria. The dissertation will be published by IGEB. For consideration, send CV and copy (pdf) of dissertation by October 23, 2009 to: Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik (IGEB), z. H. Doris Schweinzer, Leonhardstraße 15, A-8010 Graz, Austria.

5/23 - The Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein in Germany will be hosting a conference on different aspects of the cornetto and also the serpent on October 23-25, 2009. We will discuss the construction, varities, playing technique, development, repertoire, restoration, copy, and the acoustics of this instrument. Besides the link above, you may email for more information.

8/11 - Update: A conferece flyer is now available.

HBS CIMCIM Session
The Historic Brass Society will present a day-long session on Friday September 11, 2009 in Rome at the CIMCIM week-long conference. The HBS session is headed and organized by Sabine Klaus and will involve two parts:

First Part: Innovation and new technologies in the study, cataloguing and display of brass musical instruments

• Louise Bacon
• Eugenia Mitroulia
• Arnold Myers
• Gregor Widholm

Second Part: Free topics

• Stewart Carter
• Herbert Heyde
• Bruno Kampmann
• Renato Meucci

The HBS session will be held in the Parco della Musica Auditorium of the Musical Instrument Museum of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Details of the session will be posted at a later date. The full CIMCIM (International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections) conference will be held in Florence and Rome from September 7-11, 2009. There will also be pre-conference activities in Milan on September 5-6 and post conference activities in Naples on September 13-14. The conference will deal with all aspects of musical instruments including history, organology, and iconography. The home page of the 2009 meeting with the preliminary program is now online here
Further Details - Nov. 2008

6/23 - In an article in the June 23, 2009 issue of the NY Times, Anthony Tommasini wrote about a performance of "Orbits" (1979)  by Henry Brant scored for soprano, organ and 89 trombones. The piece was given two performances on June 21st at New York's Guggenheim Museum. One could imagine the composer, who died in 2007 at age 94, being thrilled with the sight and sound of the 89 trombonists lined up on the famous Guggenheim spiraling structure. Brant regarded space as the fourth dimension of music, along with pitch, time and timbre. According to Tommasini this piece is one of the most mesmerizing and eclectic musical works ever written. It must have been a great day for a sizable fraction of New York's trombonists.

9/28/09 - This year’s annual meeting of the International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections (short CIMCIM for Comité International des Musées et Collections d'Instruments de Musique) was a week-long event in three beautiful Italian cities: Florence, Rome, and Naples. Well over one hundred participants (museum curators and conservators, private collectors, instrument makers, and scholars) from around the world flocked to this event for inspiring conversations, museum visits, concerts, and lectures, as well as to celebrate the organization’s 50^th anniversary.

Gabriele Rossi Rognoni, the main organizer and coordinator of the event, had kindly invited three related organizations to participate: AMIS (the American Musical Instrument Society), the Galpin Society (the British Musical Instrument Society), and the Historic Brass Society. Each of these societies arranged special paper sessions on two days of the conference in the new venues of the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia in Rome.

The HBS session, coordinated by Sabine Klaus, took place in the afternoon of 11 September after a visit to the Vatican Museums. It consisted of two parts, the first reflected one of the meeting’s topics, “Innovation and New Technologies in the Study, Cataloguing and Display of Brass Musical Instruments,” the second comprised free papers with an emphasis on iconography.

Louise Bacon from the Horniman Museum in London discussed the fascinating non-destructive technology of “Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry” for determining the metal content of brass instruments. Gregor Widholm from the Institut für Wiener Klangstil in Vienna gave a report on the latest version of the Brass Instrument Analysis System (BIAS) that provides a means of acoustical testing. A student at the same institute, Hannes Vereecke, spoke about the use of laser scanners and three-dimensional CAD/CAM software to recreate a historical brass instrument to an accuracy of up to 0.01 mm. Arnold Myers and Eugenia Mitroulia from the University of Edinburgh explained their method of measuring brass instruments for the purpose of taxonomy, and they offered a hands-on course on how to make physical measurements on the following day.

The second part was particularly well attended as it featured three Christopher Monk Award laureates, Renato Meucci, Stewart Carter, and Herbert Heyde, all presenting new iconographical evidence on the early history of the trumpet and the trombone, and each providing enthralling insights into little-known documents and new interpretations of materials from the 13^th through the 17^th century. The afternoon concluded with a report on methods for distinguishing between instruments made by Adolphe Sax and his son Adolphe Edouard presented by Bruno Kampmann and Eugenia Mitroulia. During the coffee break attendees had the opportunity to inform themselves about a recent discovery of a trumpet mouthpiece fragment from the late 16^th or early 17^th century excavated at Jamestown Island in Virginia in a poster prepared by Stewart Carter and Sabine Klaus.

For brass enthusiasts, the excursions to Italian musical instrument collections were most enlightening. At the Museo degli strumenti in Rome we had the chance to inspect a rare crescent-shaped horn by the little known Nuremberg maker Georg Barth from the 1680s, a maker by whom no trumpets survive as he was not a master and thus limited to the making of smaller items such as hunting horns. The vast storage area of this museum, which was opened for the conference participants, contains numerous fancifully-shaped brass instruments that were used in festive parades until the 19^th century, and illustrate a long-lasting tradition described by Herbert Heyde in his lecture. The highlight was undoubtedly the visit to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli during the post-conference excursion to Naples. This museum houses two almost complete Roman cornua excavated in nearby Pompeii that were used to open gladiator games.

It was important for the Historic Brass Society to be represented at this outstanding conference and to mingle with the international fraternity of musical instrument specialists. Our wholehearted thanks go to Gabriele Rossi Rognoni, Annalisa Bini, Laura Bognetti, Franca Falletti, Renato Meucci and their team of helpers who made this memorable event possible.

- Sabine K. Klaus

7/29 - Jeff Nussbaum has completed his Report on the 25^th Annual Historic Brass Society Early Brass Festival, New London, CT, July 2009.

11/2 - Jazz scholars will discuss the work and career of Louis Armstrong at the College of Staten Island.  

A number of notable jazz scholars will present their research on various facets of Louis Armstrong’s life and music at the College of Staten Island on Saturday, November 21 in the Center for the Arts Recital Hall (Building 1P, Room 120) from 9:00am to 5:00pm.  

The Louis Armstrong Symposium will feature a keynote address by Dan Morgenstern, jazz historian, author, editor, archivist, current Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies, and former chief editor of Down Beat magazine. The list of presenters includes Ricky Riccardi, Michael Cogswell, John Szwed, James Leach, William R. Bauer, and Jeffrey Taylor. In morning and afternoon sessions, each presenter will offer a distinct perspective on his subject. Each session will be followed by an open-ended panel discussion and question-and-answer session that will elaborate on themes that emerged during the talks. A conceptual jam session for jazz scholars, this format will give scholars and audience members alike a forum for in-depth discussion about Louis Armstrong’s musical and cultural legacy.  

The presenters will explore a range of topics. Ricky Riccardi, who is currently writing a book about Louis Armstrong’s later years, will use Armstrong’s renditions of “Back Home Again in Indiana!” to challenge the negative critical reception that the trumpeter often received during the latter part of his career. Michael Cogswell, Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and curator of the Louis Armstrong Archive at Queens College’s Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, will share and discuss samples from Armstrong’s vast collection of LPs and 78s. John Szwed, Professor of Music and Jazz Studies at Columbia University and John M. Musser Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, African American Studies, and Film Studies at Yale University, will explore Armstrong’s role in Orson Welles’s unfinished movie The Story of Jazz, and in other projects the filmmaker was undertaking in 1941.  James Leach, who teaches jazz history and theory at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, will focus on Armstrong’s vocal and instrumental renditions of the Hoagy Carmichael classic “Stardust” in order to set in relief Armstrong’s approach to singing and trumpet playing. William R. Bauer, from the College of Staten Island and CUNY Graduate Center faculties, will present research from his current book project, an investigation into the jazz vocal techniques that Armstrong used in his early recordings. Jeffrey Taylor, Director of the H. Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music and Professor of Music at Brooklyn College, who also teaches in the CUNY Graduate Center’s PhD Program in Music and its American Studies Certificate Program, will consider the impact of various pianists on Armstrong’s work during the trumpeter’s Chicago years in the 1920s. The scholarship presented at this symposium will both deepen and expand our understanding of this giant of 20th-century music.

The symposium is open to the public and admission is free of charge. However, due to limited seating capacity, advance reservation is strongly suggested. To make reservations and for more information, contact William R. Bauer at 718.982.2534, or via email. The Louis Armstrong Symposium is produced with funding from the CUNY Research Foundation, and with support from the College of Staten Island and the Center for the Arts.  

7/29 - For those members on Facebook looking to connect with each other more directly (since the website doesn't have a blog/email server yet), I have created the "Historic Brass Society" group on Facebook. Membership in the group requires only that you are on Facebook and that I approve you as a group member (didn't want to leave it open to everyone so we wouldn't get spammed all the time). Once you are a member you'll be able to see other members, contact them, start discussions and treads, post news and videos, and all the other things that normal groups do on Facebook. You'll also be able to contact me directly with news, etc. for the HBS website.

Bryan

11/16 - A concerto for Shofar, Trombone and Orchestra, Tekeeyah, by Meira Warshauer was premiered on October 24^th with soloist Haim Avitsur and the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra in Wilmington, N.C. The work is one of a growing number of contemporary compositions that call for the ancient instrument (see Malcolm Miller’s fine article “The Shofar and its Symbolism” in the Historic Brass Society Journal vol. 14, 2002). In a recent phone interview, Avistur, a trombone teacher at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY, explained that he can get about a dozen notes from his four foot shofar, E and C being the most stable and the others relatively unstable. Bending into the notes is the only way to produce them effectively. He further mentioned that the soloist’s responsibility is about equally shared between playing the trombone and the shofar. More information can be found www.meirawarshauer.com.

Rick Seraphinoff will be directing a natural horn workshop at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington on June 15-20, 2009. Activities will include master classes, ensemble sessions, lectures, private lessons and performances. Info: www.music.indiana.edu/special_programs/nhw; musicsp@indiana.edu; Phone: (812) 856-6064.

4/24/09 - Roland Wilson sends us news of his latest creation, the "world's biggest" cornetto (bass at a= 440 lowest note G).  

Although Mersenne provides us with much information about  the bass cornett, there is  no actual surviving instrument at this pitch.  (Brussels 1225 is listed as a Bass but it is actually only a tone lower than a normal tenor) The bore was therefore scaled from a tenor cornett in Verona with adjustments made to compensate for the fingerholes being closer together than their theoretical positions.  Jamie Savan made 2 mouthpieces for it and came by to try it out. Although we are both normally used to plying high cornetts, we were both able to play a two-octave range down to the low G more or less straight away. Craig Kridel, the first purchaser plans on bringing the cornett to the EBF this July!

4/28/09 - The Smithsonian is conducting a contest for best rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, called "Oh Say Can You Sing". The First Brigade Band, Watertown, WI, has posted their entry on youtube.

25th Annual Historic Brass Society Early Brass Festival
July 17-19, 2009
Connecticut College, New London
New London, CT

In addition to the papers, the playing sessions and, of course, the annual pizza party, the Sunday concert will be an exciting event that will include world premiers of several new works for early brass instruments including Mendelssohn's Seasons by Clifford Bevan and conducted by Wim Becu, HBS Fanfare by Simon Proctor, De bronze et de lumiere by Therese Brenet, Jump In by Jonathan Miller as well as works by Stamitz, J. Michael Haydn, Anton Reicha and others.

Performers will include Ralph Dudgeon (keyed bugle), Douglas Yeo (serpent), David Loucky (trombone), Craig Kridel (ophicleide), Jeffrey Snedeker (natural horn) and others and will include The Anglican Singers, Simon Holt, conductor.

Festival Schedule and Abstracts
 

The winners of the 5th Annual National Trumpet Competition Historic Division, which took place on March 14, 2009 at George Mason University in Virginia are:

• The Reiche Award (open age, with the use of fingerholes): Don Johnson, leader of the Kentucky Baroque Trumpets. The prize is a Naumann baroque trumpet--a $2400 value.
• The Fantini Award (open to contestants age 23 and younger): Aaron Witek, a student at Florida State University. The prize is two weeks tuition to the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, June 21-July 5, 2009, at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music--a $925 value.
• The No-Holes Award: Dominic Favia, of Vienna, Virginia, age 15. The prize is tuition to the 2009 Natural Trumpet Making Workshop--a $670 value--held in Bloomington, Indiana from June 29-July 3, 2009 at the workshop of Rick Seraphinoff.
• The No-Holes Award runner-up: Benjamin Malick, a student at George Mason University. The prizes are various items from the HBS.
• The No-Holes Award, Honorable Mention: Don Johnson, who played a circular natural trumpet by Robert Barclay and an antique natural trumpet by Ehe.

The International Natural Trumpet Making Workshop, which has been held each year since 1993, in Bloomington, Indiana, and in various European locations, will be offered again during the week of June 29 - July 3, 2009 at the workshop of Seraphinoff Historical Instruments in Bloomington, Indiana.

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert Barclay, assisted by instrument makers Richard Seraphinoff and Michael Münkwitz, participants will make a natural trumpet using the tools and methods described in Dr. Barclay's book, The Art of the Trumpet-Maker, and also illustrated and described in Making a Natural Trumpet, the workshop textbook for the course.

The design which participants will make this year will be based on an original by the Nuremberg maker Hanns Hainlein (1632). Familiarity with tools and metal working techniques is desirable, but not by any means necessary. In past workshops everyone has been able to complete a playable instrument over the course of the week. The work schedule consists almost exclusively of hands-on workshop time from 9:00am until 5:00pm each day, Monday through Friday. Most participants finish their instruments by Friday early afternoon, making it possible to depart from Bloomington that afternoon or evening.

Tuition for the Bloomington workshop is US$670.00, which includes all materials, tools and supplies which will be used during the workshop, as well as a copy of Making a Natural Trumpet - and Illustrated Workshop Guide, published by the University of Edinburgh. Enrollment is limited to 12 participants, and reservations are made on a first come, first served basis.

To reserve a space, send a check for US$50.00 (payable to Richard Seraphinoff, organizer of the course) to the address below. This deposit will be refundable until June 1, 2009. The balance of US$620.00 will be due on the first day on the workshop. Non-U.S. participants may pay the entire amount on the first day, due to the costs of currency exchange and transfers.

Since my own workshop, where the course will be held this year is outside of Bloomington in a rural wooded area, going into Bloomington for lunch will take a substantial amount of time out of the work day, so we will offer the possibility of having lunch at our house for those who don't want to bring their own lunch each day. The cost will be $30 for the week, or $6 per day for those who would like to take part.

Richard Seraphinoff
2256 Birdie Galyan Road
Bloomington, IN 47408
Tel/Fax: 812-333-3114
Email: seraphin@indiana.edu

Thirty years after the successful launch of the best-selling treatise Unequal Temperaments and their Role in the Performance of Early Music, Claudio Di Veroli's new book Unequal Temperaments: Theory, History and Practice includes the musicological findings of the last decades, with hundreds of photos and computer-produced charts. The book deals extensively on TUNING BRASS INSTRUMENTS in early temperaments, with detailed treatment of natural trumpets and horns.Please find a detailed free preview and a link for online purchase in temper.braybaroque.ie.

Members of the Federal City Brass Band performed for the Abraham Lincoln's 200th Birthday on Feb 12, 2009 at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, the location of his assassination is April 1865. Jeff Stockham plays taps on a period bugle, a call adopted by the Union Army ony 2 years before Lincoln's death. Click here for a video link.

Richard Burdick, principal horn of the Regina Symphony Orchestra, performed Heinrich Domnich's Horn Concerto No. 1 on his Classical-era natural horn. Eventually he will post a recording on www.naturalhorn.com. Heinrich Domnich was one of the first horn teachers at the Paris Conservatory. He was a student of Punto and the teacher of Dauprat. To Burdick's knowledge, this concerto has not been performed since the 1820s. The concert took place at Westminster United Church, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada on Sunday 4 January 2009. He will be performing Dauprat's horn quintet, Opus 6, No. 2 on the same instrument for the Regina Symphony Orchestra's Government House Series, 14-15 March 2009. See www.reginasymphony.com/ for more information.

Jeffrey Nussbaum's report on EBF 24 and a gallery of photos can be seen in the "Articles" menu - select 2008 Articles.

Doug Yeo reports that he recently premiered new serpent concerto with orchestra, and played a solo on ophicleide at the same concert. Read the Boston Globe review here. You may also hear an interview with him on WBUR's syndicated radio program (PRI) Here and Now. The website also features photos and a short video of Doug playing ophicleide.

Doug's sabbatical from the BSO starts in January (through June) and he says he is looking forward to a few serpent/ophicleide events. In February he'll be in San Francisco playing ophicleide on Mendelssohn's Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth), and in May, he'll head to England to do some research at the Bate Collection and a few other museums, and then take part in the annual "Serpentarium" event with Phil Humphries. When Humphries's Mellstock Band travels to Boston for the annual "Christmas Revels" at Harvard University's Sanders Theater, Doug and Phil will give two pre-concert talks on the serpent, playing duets and otherwise acquainting the audience with their obsession.

Announcing the Trinity College of Music Brass Experience 2009 (February 23-27, 2009) featuring Portuguese über-tuba player Sérgio Carolino as Artist in Residence. This is the sixth year of the week-long festival at Trinity which aims to highlight brass playing of all genres and this year features a diversity of music from Early to Jazz. It's a great opportunity to experience a wide range of brass performances from talented players of all ages, and with many events free, it won't break the bank.

The festival opens at Blackheath Halls on February 23, 6:00pm with the high profile Philip Jones Brass Competition. Open to all TCM Brass Ensembles, the competition is named after ex-Trinity Principal and trumpeter Philip Jones CBE, founder of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. The festival celebrates his life and groundbreaking work which paved the way for the modern brass ensemble experience. The performance will be a vibrant mix of diverse brass groups playing everything from baroque to pop under the watchful eye of adjudicator Sérgio Carolino (admission free).

On February 24, at 1:05pm, the Old Royal Naval College Chapel at Trinity College of Music's home - the resplendent baroque Old Royal Naval College - will echo with the sounds of early brass as the TCM Early Music Brass Ensemble present Venice in Greenwich. Come along to hear cornetto, sackbut and natural trumpet players under the direction of Richard Thomas (admission free).

For more information on other brass activities, and there are plenty, at the Experience, please see www.tcm.ac.uk/whatson.

Making the British Sound - Instrumental Music and British Traditions
Sponsored Jointly by the Galpin Society and the Historic Brass Society
London - Edinburgh
July 7-11, 2009
Further Details (Galpin Society website)

Updated Booking Form!

(link updated 5/8/09)

4/5 - Details have been announced for the 25th Annual Early Brass Festival of the Historic Brass Society, July 17-19 at Connecticut College, New London, CT. 

Tentative speakers include Gunther Schuller, Ralph Dudgeon, Paul Niemisto, Jeff Nussbaum and Barbara Hersey. 

In celebration of the twenty-fifth Early Brass Festival, there will be three world premiere performances.

Doug Yeo, bass trombonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will perform the world premiere of De bronze et de Lumnire for Serpent and Piano by T. Brenet. 

In addition, the world premiere of Music for Natural Trumpets by Jonathan Miller will be performed.

Finally, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth, Berlioz Historical Brass, including Doug Yeo, David Loucky, Craig Kridel, Ralph Dudgeon and Lowell Greer, will perform the world premiere of Clifford Bevan's Mendelssohn's Seasons for chorus, horn, trombone, English bass horn and ophicleide.

In addition to these special activities, there will be lectures, concerts, the annual HBS membership meetings, informal playing sessions, and, of course, the famous annual HBS pizza party!

For more details and the registration form, download this form.